Despite a shortage of talent in the Information Technology sector in India, the country would remain competitive at least for the next five to 10 years, a top official of Infosys said here today.

"Globally there is shortage of IT talent...it is there even in the United States and also in India. But India will continue to be competitive for at least the next five to 10 years," Infosys CEO and Managing Director Kris S. Gopalakrishnan told reporters in Chennai.

Stating that salaries offered would be the same for one employed locally in an offshoring site to one who shifts base from India, he said there would be additional charges by means of visa transportation and family transportation.

Asked whether the US market was passing stringent laws to restrict Indian companies setting up off shore facilities in the US he said the market there is one of the most open in the world, a reason why most Indian companies have maximum percentage of business coming from there.

"I dont want to say the United States is unfair and we are fair.. it could be vice versa.. there are several instances that our own policies are not fair. But both of us (US and India) have to work together to increasing bilateral trade so that there is benefit to all participants", he said.

The Infosys CEO said India has to put across its views on how the two nations can go together."We want bilateral trade to grow and India has certain strengths, particularly on IT services. we can take it up through industry bodies like CII, FICCI and NASSCOM," he added.

Vice-Chairman of Cognizant Technology Solutions Lakshmi Narayanan said they were not concerned about stringent norms from the United States.

He was reacting to media reports that Ohio state has banned offshoring of software services to countries like India.

"This is not something new and has been happening in the past also. But from industry perspective, from our company's perspective, we are not unduly concerned about it. We believe that the talent required for doing jobs n the private and government sectorsis something we have to focus".

However, Narayanan said this was a passing phase after the global recession. "Once they (US) move to the growing state, investments will start coming in and then things will come back to normal", he said.

He also said companies need to acquire the best talent to remain competitive. "We have a policy to recruit the best talent, wherever it is available, he said.

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